


The Dead Steven Brigade

by Falrisesi



Category: Steven Universe (Cartoon)
Genre: A lot of Dead Steebs, Classic Steven, Dark Comedy, Dead Steeb Club AU, Dead Steebs, F/M, FADIAMT Adjacent, Fluff and Angst, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, a lot of feelings
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-04-01
Updated: 2020-04-18
Packaged: 2021-02-28 23:08:03
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,273
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23425252
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Falrisesi/pseuds/Falrisesi
Summary: Steven Universe knew that the Crystal Gem's work was dangerous- he just didn't realizehowdangerous. But with the ghosts of seven alternate selves haunting his dreams, he really needs to take a hard look at his life.
Relationships: Connie Maheswaran/Steven Universe, Steven Universe & Alt Steven's
Comments: 11
Kudos: 85
Collections: And Marvel At A Diamonds Many Facets





	1. Cotton Candy Dreams

**Author's Note:**

  * For [aenor_llelo](https://archiveofourown.org/users/aenor_llelo/gifts).



Chapter 1: Cotton Candy Dreams

Steven Universe’s dreams were usually normal, filled with pastel imagery with the wet fogginess of water colours, fuzzy voices saying gibberish- but tonight it was different. His mind was sharper than usual. He could hear the sounds of water dripping from a foggy cavern, the scent of roses thick in the humid air. 

His eyes focused on his surroundings, a large glassy pool was centered perfectly with several light pink pillows and mats surrounding it, placed with such precision it looked unnatural, a soft cloud layer covered the top of the cavern glittering with shining petals. 

A man dropped through the cloud layer and landed straight into the pond.

The splash jolted Steven to rush forward over to the pool. The mysterious man breached the surface with a loud gasp, a mop of bushy cotton candy hair dripped around the man’s soft face. He got up from the pool, coughing. His clothes- prim, proper and pink- were equally drenched. 

Steven could only blink and take a step back as the man faced him. Dark brown eyes looked at him, glistening with pink dots around a black diamond.

“Oh by the dying stars!” the man shouted, tripping back into the pond. 

Steven suppressed a giggle and offered a hand. The man took it with a chuckle and a grumbled “Thanks” before trudging out of the pond, allowing Steven for the first time to see a shining reddish pink gemstone in the man's belly, framed by a cut out diamond.

Steven gasped in surprise, leaning in close to get a good look at it. “Are you a gem?!?” 

The man just looked at him with a terse looking. “Uh yeah...let's go with that.” His voice was a deep gentle timbre backed with the whispers of guitars and chiptunes. 

Steven’s eyes lit up. “What type!” 

“I’m...Aster.” 

Steven smiled. “I’m Steven!” 

“So...Steven, where...are we exactly?” Aster looked around. 

“Uh... in my dreams I think! I’m pretty sure I’m still dreaming…” Steven looked around again. 

“Dreams… “ Aster frowned. “Oh...I see.”

The clouds parted again, letting a small band of white shimmery butterflies out. The swarm landed on top of Aster’s head, forming a small crown of them. 

“Aww~ they like you!” Steven smiled. 

Aster sighed and sat down on one of the rugs. “Listen Steven...how old are you?” 

“Uhh... 13!” 

“We-I...Steven, listen.” Aster stopped and bit his lip and patted the floor next to him. “Come sit.” He looked out at the pond with a sombre expression. “W-I think I’m stuck here…” The butterflies rippled again floating over to his hands. “In your dreams.” 

“Why do you say that?” Steven frowned...stuck in dreams?

Aster looked away. “I haven’t... been entirely honest with you.” 

“Huh?”

“...We’re the same person. I’m older you.” Aster muttered, gripping the rug. 

Steven gasped in shock. “I become pink?!” 

“Uh- yeah.” 

Steven jumped up with a large smile. “You look so cool!” 

Aste-Older Steven blushed as the butterflies rippled again, flowing right into his mouth. He coughed, feeling the butterflies fill his throat up before disappearing. “Thank you.” Older Steven wiped the spit away from his mouth. “So yeah...we-I. I’m kinda...stuck here. 

“I’m sorry!” cried the Younger Steven. “I didn’t mean to trap you away from whatever you were doing.”

“What? No, young me, don't apologise...this isn’t your fault.” Older Steven gripped Younger’s hand firmly. “This is out of your control, please don’t blame yourself.” He wrapped his hands around Younger, pulling them both into a firm but kind hug. 

Younger frowned. “But...” 

“No Buts…Seriously this isn’t your fault.”

Younger sighed and melted into the hug, getting a face full of Older’s pink hair. “...Your hair looks like cotton candy.”  
Older chuckled. “Cotton candy, eh?” 

Younger smiled and touched it. “It's sooo fluffy!” He gasped with inspiration. “I know! You can be Cotton Steven!” 

The newly named Cotton Steven raised his eyebrows, but gave a light chuckle. “It’s perfect.”

Steven smiled. “So...do we have flying cars in the future?” 

“Nah, just spaceships.” 

“How old are you?!” 

“26.” 

“Wow really!” 

Cotton laughed, and let go of Steven to ruffle his hair. “Yeah. I’m old.” 

“Not as old as Garnet, Amethyst and…” Steven looked away, eyes focused on the ground. “You...know what’s going to happen in the future right?” 

Cotton frowned, the butterflies shifting again to take their place at his shoulders. “Some of it...yeah.” 

“Is...Pearl ok?” Steven mumbled into Cotton's shoulder. 

“Of course, why do you ask?” 

Steven buried even deeper into Cotton's side. “She uh...I got her poofed.” 

Steven burst into tears as Cotton wrapped around Steven again, letting one of his slowly make soothing circles on the younger boys back. Cotton muttered calming soft words, a tinge of a music box surrounding the words. 

Steven sniffed. “I-I didn't mean to-” He started to ramble words muffled by Cotton’s vest. 

“Steven...Listen to us,” Cotton's voice soothed. “It’s not your fault that it happened.”  
“But!” 

“No buts!” 

“She’s going to be ok though?” 

“100%.” Cotton looked at him with his weird diamond eyes and a soft smile on his face. “Everything is fine Steven.”

\--- 

Steven smiled, feeling his eyes close, his awareness dulling back into what would be considered normal for a dream, waking up to the sun shining through windows a little later. A large weight pushed him down. Steven blinked out the sleep sand in his eyes to see Lion lying on top of him. Not enough to crush him but enough to be comfortable. 

Steven looked around the beach house with a sad look. Cotton wasn’t anywhere to be seen. He shivered, missing the weird warmth from the hug that, to him, ended seconds ago. He didn’t even know if it was real but it felt…

So...Real. Too real. 

Steven frowned and sighed before being attacked by a large pink tongue. “Ah! Lion!” 

Lion just stared at him. 

Steven smiled and scratched Lion behind the ear. “Hey boy, good morning.”


	2. Twin Destinies

A couple of weeks had passed since Cotton had first started showing up in Steven's dreams. Since then, the older him would appear occasionally along with the weird cave dimension every couple of days or so. 

The cavern had changed as well. Its usual blank stone walls were covered in pictures of space, Cotton, Gems (some of whom he didn’t recognize!) and Connie. A guitar was hanging out near a pile of blankets on top of a very squishy mattress, with a laptop precariously placed on top with no charger in sight. 

Steven adored his older self's company. Finally, he had someone to talk to about his issues that actually understood what he was going through. Cotton didn’t seem to mind his complaining, and instead would silently be there for him- either with a gentle, but firm hand on his shoulder, or a comforting hug whilst squished into the metric ton of fluffy pillows. 

Tonight Steven was excited, hoping for another visit to the mysterious dream place. He had just gone to see the new Dogcopter after a slight misadventure with an angry elemental robot and Lion. Steven collapsed onto his bed with a smile on his lips and allowed his mind to doze off.

When Steven came to he was back in the mysterious cavern. Cotton was staring in shock at two figures whose heads were poking out of the pool, one brown and one pink. Steven rushed over with a frown. “What’s going on?” 

The two figures jolted at the sound in unison, before turning in the water to face Steven. A pair of familiar brown eyes looked at him, their owner gasping in shock, his butterfly necklace jittering slightly. Steven rubbed his eyes- another older him was staring back at him. 

The other figure glowed pink- everything from his diamond-iris eyes down to his hair glowed a vivid soft pink, like a younger Cotton. 

He hummed and frowned. Were these twins... other Stevens?

Before he could think anymore on the matter, the brown eyed Steven had already rushed out of the water, eyes lit up with excitement. “OH MY GOSH! LOOK LUX, A MINI US.”  
The pink eyed Steven, or Lux, just rolled his eyes and slowly walked out of the pool, taking care to flick some water off a short sleeved half cut jacket before joining his brother. “Oh yeah, we are absolutely fucked.” 

Steven pushed his hands to his ears with a shout. “Ahh, no swearing! Pearl says it’s rude!” The two newbies just burst into laughter, echoing each other with the same pitch and gestures. 

“You are precious, I’m Cas!” Cas smiled maniacally at him before motioning to Lux. “And that’s Lux!” 

“Aren’t you...more me's? Like Cotton?” Steven asked, confused. The duo looked behind them at Cotton, still distantly staring into nothing, clutching his shirt's cuffs. 

“We’re. Halves.” Lux said, “We...Should be together but…” he sighed, running a flower tattooed hand through his hair. “For the moment we’re not.” He gave Cas an enigmatic look.

“Halves? Like....oh! Were you split up by a corrupted gem or something!” Steven asked, a look of determination blooming on his face. 

“No...It’s...” Cas fiddled with his long sleeved jacket, his voice fading off leaving the room feeling weirdly cold and empty. He shivered. “Um, let's just say it's complicated for now.” 

“Really?” 

“Really, really.”

Lux sighed turning on the spot, biting his lip, to look over at Cotton. With conviction in his step Lux moved over to give the motionless adult a poke on the shoulder. Cotton didn't even seem to register it.

Lux sighed and tried a light punch. Still no response. Steven frowned looking over at Cotton. “Is...he ok?” 

Lux just looked back, expressionless. “Uh, he needs like a couple of minutes.” 

“That bad?!” Cas hissed. 

Lux shrugged and waved his hand in front of Cotton’s face. “Yeah, Steven is Not. In.” 

Steven rushed to Cotton's side and gripped one of Cotton's hands. “Cotton!” He shook the taller man. 

“Woah, Steven!” Lux shouted, picking Steven up, his form glitching slightly. Steven yelped and let go. 

Lux walked with Steven in his arms back to Cas, who had sat down on one of the mats. Cas was frowning. “You shouldn’t be rough with Mini me.” Lux rolled his eyes and deposited Steven onto Cas’ knee. 

“Yeah!” Steven shouted. “I’m delicate.” 

“I’m going to try something.”

Steven and Cas gave a shared worried glance. Cas grabbed Lux’s hand. “Are you sure?” 

“Eh…slightly?” Lux muttered, earning a hard glare from Cas. Lux shook Cas’ hand away and stalked back over to Cotton. He took a moment to steel himself for whatever happened next, and deliberately placed the tips of his fingers on Cottons forehead before letting a pulse of magic through. 

Then everything went insane as Cotton and Lux screamed. Cas protectively hugged Steven, letting his body take the brunt of the sonic attack. The clouds dissipated in nothingess, the rugs and cushions went flying, several landing in the deep pond. 

\--

Cotton’s body shuddered involuntarily. He blinked tears out of his eyes and groaned. His body felt weirdly charged, like he was hit with a Gem Destabilizer. He tried to shake it out but failed, the energy still buzzing behind his thoughts. He stretched out, releasing the tension in his body. What had he been doing, again? 

Cotton looked around, and spotted Steven, clutched the arms of a human him, conscious and struggling against the weight of the elder. The elder had lacerations in his back, thick and bloody with several burn marks littering the sides of them. He was definitely. Not. Awake. 

_'The split ones'_ , Sten, his human half, whispered in his head. Right, yes. The spilt duo, he had seen them and then- 

He couldn’t remember what happened next. Concerning. 

His eyes moved downwards to find this other gem half cracked, both in form and in gem. The gem’s body was missing his arm and had similar lacerations in his back, but instead of blood, they looked more like someone had cut out a piece of polystyrene. The gem twitched and groaned, his head pulled up to stare at Cotton with pink diamonds in his eyes.

“Ow.” The gem muttered and hissed. “If I wasn't already dead I’dve poofed.” 

Cotton blinked. “What happened.” 

“Feedback I think.” Another hiss, this time louder. “Not doing that again.” 

“Feedback.” 

“I tried to wake you up from whatever...was going on but...got feedback.” The Gem explained. Oh, he disassociated then. 

“Do you need help?” 

“We’re dead.” The Gem stated. Like that would answer his question. 

Steven jolted, up having successfully gotten out from the Human Side’s grasp. “You’re what!?” 

Cotton glared. Steven rushed over to the duo. “That can’t be true! Right, Cotton?!” Cotton stayed silent. “Cotton?” Steven mumbled, large fat tears flowing from his eyes.

Cotton bent down to Steven’s height and picked him up into a large hug. “Sorry kiddo...I didn’t it mean for it to come out like this.” Steven kept crying into his shoulder.

“Were you actually going to tell him?” The split Gem half (Lux, was it?) asked. Cotton twitched and stared down the Gem. “Of course. I just didn’t think it was appropriate right now,” Cotton hissed back. 

Steven sniffed into his shoulder. “How…?” 

Cotton froze, his butterflies shifting all around him. “Lets...Let's not talk about that, Ok bud?” 

“But!” 

“It's complicated Steven. Just...not right now.” 

Steven shoved himself out of Cotton’s grasp and walked over to The Gem. “And you?! Can you tell me?” The Gem looked away. “Lux!” 

Lux grimaced, “It's not important right now. I need to check on Cas.” He tried to stand but his legs weren’t able to support him. “Or I guess I’ll just be here, then.” 

Cotton looked over to the Human, Cas. “I’ll grab him.” 

Steven frowned, more tears fell. “Why won’t you tell me?”

“It would upset you more, in all likeliness.” 

“So you just won’t?!” 

“Cas would be better to talk to about the issue.” Steven sighed and sat next to Lux, watching the gem slowly test his body out checking if everything worked. 

“How old are you?” Steven laid down, staring up at the now reformed clouds. 

Lux blinked and joined him on the floor. “Uh...Seventeen years, three months, fourteen days.” 

Cotton came back over and slowly laid Cas down next to Lux, before taking his own spot lying down next to Steven. “Oh…” 

“That’s only three years away.” Steven mumbled shifting up against Cotton.  
Lux only nodded, eyes focused upon the clouds.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you guys enjoyed this chapter! I've been thinking of starting a companion Tumblr for this au since i have...a decent stack of art for it.
> 
> Beta'd/FADIMAT creator: aenor-llelo   
> Cas/Lux name inspiration: hueue


	3. Intermisson 1: Triple Threat

Cas woke up to a guitar. The melody was calm, robotic, every string hit perfectly. A soft groan left his throat as he slowly opened his eyes up to the dim pinkish-yellow light. Several blinks later he managed to maneuver himself up slightly.

As he suspected, Lux was playing, feet dipped into the pond, eyes closed.

Cas looked down at himself, his body….there were no more wounds on his skin. He looked up at Lux, staring at his shimmery pink twin. “Lux?” he mumbled. Lux opened his eyes and turned to him. The music stopped and Lux placed the guitar down on the floor before moving towards him.

Lux took him into a large hug, the solid light was warm like a dim fireplace. The light continued over him and Cas closed his eyes instinctively as a white light consumed the duo. A feeling of pure joy enveloped him, he melted into Lux.

And then it stopped.

His body was thrust out, and he landed on the solid floor with a thump. Lux didn't fare any better, rolling away. The light had stopped, the warmth was replaced with a longing cold. He shivered, getting back on his feet and testing his arms and legs.

They should’ve fused. There was no reason for that not to work- or at least, he thought there was no reason. His hand instantly went to his belly but felt nothing. There was no cool diamond in him, not even a belly button in its place. His hand tightened around the flesh, it was missing, it wasn’t supposed to be missing where was he where was he WHERE WAS LUX-

A warm hand gripped his shoulder, soothing and grounded. Cas opened his eyes, (he hadn't even realised they were closed), and looked up. Lux was here, with his hard diamond eyes staring down at him with concern.

Cas smiled sadly and took the hand in his own, gripping onto it with dear life.

“We. Can’t fuse anymore.” Lux stated. “We are incompatible now.”

Cas sighed and let his hand slip out of Lux’s grip. He scratched his neck fingers just through the butterflies. “We really are...dead aren’t we.”

Lux shrugged. “I have not been shattered, yet I am here with you, and not where we once were.” He frowned. “It doesn’t make sense.”

“For what it's worth, I’m glad you’re here with me Polly.”

“Please never call me that again.” Lux grumped, arm crossed.

Cas just laughed at his other half and sat down, grabbing the guitar in the process. He let his hands glide over the strings, strumming a soft, jaunty tune. “Where's the Cotton Candy us?”

Lux turned to look in the direction of the small mound of pillows and sheets. “I think he’s asleep. He hasn’t moved from underneath there for a while now.”

“And small us?”

Lux pointed in the direction of the pond. “Awake.”

Cas frowned and looked over. The pond now showed a bagel slowly being eaten from their perspective. “What...are we looking at?”

“Small us’ perspective. This pool...it’s a view into his reality.”

Cas let his finger touch the water, a small jolt of thoughts crashed into his mind. He yelped and fell over. “W-what was that!”

Lux hummed for a bit. “We can connect to small us...through this. I’ve been testing it...but big us doesn’t seem to like me doing it.”

“I very much don’t.” Cotton had popped his head out of the pillows and slowly made his way over to the pond. “It’s his mind!”

Lux frowned. “It could be useful.”

Cas just shrugged. “If it’s anything like our past we could...help him.”

Cotton’s frown deeped.

"Useful?" Cotton's voice shakes. "Useful?"

Fuck, Lux whispers in his thoughts.

"It's his mind! Steven's mind! We can't use him for anything!"

“But we are him.” Lux tried to reason.

“No. Steven is Steven!”

Cas moved between the duo, thrusting his hands out. “Hey! Lets just all calm down.”

“We can’t be Steven for him.” Cotton finished, crossing his arms.

Lux looked away and moved from the pond’s edge. “Fine.”

Cotton sighed, running a hand through his hair “Are you two ok?”

Cas blinked confused, “Yes? Why do you ask?”

“You’re back...is it healed?”

“Oh yeah it’s fine! I guess this weird place healed it?”

“I’m really sorry, I just was...surprised by you…” Cotton grimaced. “Being...apart.”

Cas looked over at Lux, his pink twin was hugging himself and looking away. “Y-yeah it's...a surprise to us as well. We...didn’t plan to split.” Cas scratched his neck. “But uh w-we apparently can’t fuse back now for some...reason.”

Cotton looked away, silent.

“So. There’s going to be more us...in all likelihood.” Lux stated.

“What? How could you know that?” Cas shouted.

“It...I have a feeling.”

Cotton nodded. “Now that you mention it...I do too.”

“What if the others aren't as...agreeable as I. What then.” Lux looked pointedly at Cotton.

“Then I’ll stop them from trying.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks to the lovely Aenor for betaing this mess :>

**Author's Note:**

> For A Diamond Is A Marveled Thing (FADIAMT) is a series by aenor_llelo featuring an adult Steven and his misadventures. 
> 
> Please go read it for more context on Cotton as a character.


End file.
